As a matter of writing philosophy, if there is one, I try not to ever plot a story. I try to write it from the character's point of view and see where it goes.

I think the deeper you go into questions, the deeper or more interesting the questions get. And I think that's the job of art.

I've had a lot of glamour come my way in the last 10 years - you know, movie stars and mansions and red carpets and trips to Europe and crazy stuff I never would have imagined - and I look at them as if I'm the bartender in the corner of the room. They've never gone into my psyche. I look at them with distance, and wonder.

Somewhere, sometime I'd stopped expecting my father to father.

The energy of first-time directors is tremendous. They work beyond the limits for a hit in this competitive industry.

I do as much comedy as I possibly can, but I'm basically limited by the imagination of the secretaries who make the decisions.

I don't think it's by any means an end to my career.

Does any art have a practical value? People love to talk about how expensive a painting is. That's the only way we can talk about paintings in this century.